Carrying drum or reel



W. F. GARLAND.

CARRYING DRUM 0R REEL.

APPLlCATl0N HLED DEC. 16. 1918.

1,390,286. Pabentedsept. 13, 1921.

Nrrno STATES PATENT orricn.

WILLIAM F. GARLAND, OFYNEWYORK, N. Y.

onnnvrne DRUM on REEL;

Specification of Letters Patent. Pate t d Se t 3" 1921 Original application filed December 31, 1912, Serial No. 739,463. Divided and this application fil ed December 16, 1918. Serial No. 266,866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM F. GAn Ano,

a citizen of the United States, residing at This invention relates to carrying reels or drums intended especially for use in developing photographic films, the film being wound on the drum to be subjected to the action of developing, fixing and washing liquids and thereafter dried, usually while still on the drum.

The invention aims to provide a film carrier adapted to take up slack in the film resulting from expansion of the film when wet, and to yield to permit the film to contract in drying, thereby maintaining the film in position and held fiat and under proper tension at all times after it is placed on the carrier. Some considerable diificulty has been experienced heretofore in the development of long moving picture films due to the fact that when the film becomes wet after being wound around the usual carrying reel or drum. it expands and becomes loose and is liable to move out ofplace or not to be held stretched out fiat on the drum. This has made it necessary for best results to re adjust the film on the drum to take up the slack after the film has been wet andthen to loosen or again readjust the film before or during drying to prevent its being subjected to too great a tension, whereby it might be warped and distorted. By my invention avoid this difficulty by providing a carrying reel or drum with means, preferably aument with the end of one of the drum trun- As a full understanding of the invention can best be given by a detail descr1pt1on of a construction embodying the features of the invention in a preferred form, such a de scription will now be given 1n connection with the accompanying drawings showing part of a developing machine which is more fully shown and described in my original appllcatlon, Serial No. 739,463, filed December 31, l 9 12, (upon which Patent No. 1,288,403 has bee n 1ssued,) of which this application is a division, such machine as disclosed in said original applicationrand as shown in the accompanylng drawings being provided with a film-carrying reel or drum made in accordance with the invention herein claimed. In said drawings V Figure 1 is asectional view of the developmg chamber of said machine.

Fig.2 is a view partly in front elevation ang partly in section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1; an e Fig. 3 is a detailview. I

Referring to the drawings, with the apparatus shown the developing, fixing'and washlng *of the film is accomplished within a light-tightcylindricalcasing 10, the lower part of which forms a tank for holding the developing,fixing and washing liquids during the time that the film is to be subjected to the action of suchliquids, and for holding other liquids to the action of which it may be desired to subjectthe film. Mounted to rotate within the casing is a skeleton drum or reel for carrying the film. The drum is removably supported within the casing by means of brackets 13 extending from the end walls of the casing and formed to provide bearings for the end trunnions 14% of the drum. i For removing the "carrier. drum from and placing it within the casing, the casing is formed with an opening at one side which is normally closed by a door 15. lhe drum, as shown, is rotated by means of a hand crank 16 adapted to have its shaft end placed through an opening in one of theend walls of the casing and in operating engagevided for rotating the drum, or other suitable means provided for manually rotatlng the drum.

The carrying drum or reel may be of any suitable construction, but to provide alight,

strong drum which may be easily handled,

Obviously, power I preferably make the drum of the construction shown having no axial shaft, but having end disks or hubs 17 which carry the shaft trunnions 14 and from which extend radial arms 18 set into radial sockets in the hubs or extensions fromthe hubs, as shown, and which carry at their outer ends the tie rods or peripheral supports 19. The films to be developed will be secured to and supported by the longitudinalrods l9, and long moving picture films will be wound splrally about the drum on these rods. The film may be attached to the drum while it is in the machine or may be wound on the drum by means of a suitable winding apparatus .while the drum is removed from the machine and the loaded drum then placed in position within the casing 10.

The films will usually be wound on to the drum while dry. The wetting of the films causes them to expand, so that with a drum such as heretofore used'the film becomes loose and liable to become displaced and to avoid this it has been customary heretofore to readjust the-film to take up this slack. To avoid this difficulty, I provide the drum as before stated with means for taking up such slack and for allowing the film to contract again on drying. For this purpose, I provide the drum'with; one or more longitudinally extending film supports movable radially outward and inward to take up slack in the film or to allow the film to contract, and such supports are preferably spring-pressed so as to move automatically outward as the film expands and inward. In the preferred con-,

as the film contracts. struction shown, each alternate supporting rod 19 is pivotally mounted on its radial arms 18 and extends from its pivotal axis in a direction circumferentially of the arm, so that it may swing on its pivots in a direction substantially radial of the drum, and is spring-pressed outward by springs 20. These spring-pressed take-up rods or bars'19, which are'also designated by the reference letter a, are conveniently made of flat strips, as shown, of wood orother suitable material, and are limited in their inward movement by stops 21, so that when the film is being wound dry on the drum the take-up rods will be held in their innermost position so that the film may be wound under even tension. Obviously, a lesser number or a greater number or even all of the supporting rods 19 might beformed so asto operate as automatic take-up rods.

heating the developing chamber during the drying of developed and fixed films. The water in the tank 40 may be heated by means of a gas burner 50, or by other suitable means. 7

After the film applied to the drum has beendeveloped, fixed and washed as fully explained in my said original application, it may be removed from the developing chamber for drying either by taking out the carrying reel with thefilm on it, or by unwinding the film from the reel on to some other support, or the film may be dried on the reel in the developing chamber. When drying within the chamber, the heating means is desirably used to heat the air in the chamber, and for further expediting the drying, the apparatus may be provided with means for causing a movement of air through the developing chamber as from an inlet opening 55' at one end of the casing 10 to an outlet opening 56 at the other end of the casing, and the air may be caused to move through thencasing by providing the radial arms 18 at one end of the carrying drum with inclined fan blades 57, as described and claimed in my said original application.

It is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the exact construction and arrangementof parts as shown in the drawings, but thatit includes changesand modifications thereof within the claims. It will be understood also that the invention claimed is not limited in its use to a developing machine as in the construction shown.

The word film as used herein is intended to'include not only the transparent sheets of coatedcelluloid or other substance to which the term is usually applied, but also to include sheets or strips of paper, or other flexible material.

hat is claimed is:

1. A carrier drum for supporting photographic films during development provided with one or more hinged longitudinal flanges, and means for turning the said flanges upon their hinges so as topress outwardly against a film wound upon the drum.

2; A carrier drum for supporting photographic films during development provided with one or more hinged flanges, resilient means for tilting said flanges outwardly, and stops for limiting the inward movement of said flanges.

3. A carrier drum for supporting photographic films during development provided with one or more hinged flanges, resilient means for tilting said flanges outwardly, and stops adapted to arrest inward movement of said flanges when they reach a substantially tangential position. 7

4:. A carrier drum for supporting photographic films during development having a plurality of longitudinally extending film supports spaced about the periphery of the drum, resilient means for pressing said supports outwardly, and stops for limiting the inward movement of said supports.

5. A carrier drum for supporting photographic films during development provided with radially movable longitudinal film supe ports spaced about said drum stops to limit the inward movement of said supports, and means for exerting an outward pressure upon said supports which will cause them to move outwardly in case of an expansion of a filmwound upon the drum but which will permit the supports to be pressed against the stops when a film is wound upon the drum. 7

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WVILLIAM F. GARLAND. Witnesses:

ETHEL JoHNEs, A. L. KENT. 

